Politics Archives - Page 79 of 112

Politics

Social Programs Are Not Socialism

Conservatives have been gunning for New Deal programs for decades

February 9, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

One of the reasons the nation’s deficit and debt is soaring is that Trump’s 2017 tax cut slashed tax revenues. And rather than helping regular Americans, “the plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the truck drivers, the pipe-fitters, the people that like me best,” as Trump put it, 60% ...

Politics

How The New York Times Turned Me into a Bernie Supporter

When the liberal media cries wolf, it energizes the grassroots

February 7, 2020 • by Hannah Leffingwell

Among my reasons for resisting his renewed candidacy: the bad taste left in my mouth from the Bernie Bros phenomenon, his age, and honestly? His gender. As the 2020 democratic field came into focus, my choice to support Elizabeth Warren felt easy. Warren boasted an impressive record, but one that wouldn’t allow ...

How The New York Times Turned Me into a Bernie Supporter

North America

The Trump Party Rises from the Ashes of the GOP

Retribution against those who sought to make Trump accountable begins

February 6, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a ‘high crime and misdemeanor,’” Romney said. “Yes, he did.” The fact that Romney voted yes on one of the articles was really the ...

The Trump Party Rises from the Ashes of the GOP

North America

America’s Weimar Moment

Bernie Sanders & the Future of Democracy in America

February 6, 2020 • by James Miller

But here we are. While progressive Democrats this cycle have been dreading the instincts of centrist liberals like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, moderates cringe at the prospect of an avowed socialist leading their party. Some fear Sanders would split Democrats, and doom him to a defeat as sweeping as that George McGovern suffered ...

Democracy

Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

The word is weighted with different meanings in Ukraine.

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

And yet, as some Republican members of Congress have noted, in his televised Sept. 25 meeting with Trump, when asked about the now-infamous July 25 phone call in which Trump asked for a favor, Zelensky said “nobody pushed me.” Why would Zelensky claim that “nobody pushed” if military aid was indeed on the ...

Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

Democracy

Trump says he was looking for corruption in Ukraine — where President Zelenskyy was known for mocking corruption in Ukraine

Like Trump, Zelenskyy was a showman before he entered politics. So what does he stand for?

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

Zelenskyy’s career as a showman reveals Ukrainians’ shared sense of moral values, frustration with politicians’ corruption and national solidarity in the face of Russia’s politics of division. I’ll explain below. Zelenskyy emphasized shared values Trained as a lawyer, Zelenskyy made his name in the Russian-speaking world through competitive improvisational comedy, on a ...

Trump says he was looking for corruption in Ukraine — where President Zelenskyy was known for mocking corruption in Ukraine

North America

Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

He has another target in mind

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

But the Kremlin does not need assistance from Trump -- much less from Rudolph Giuliani -- to find or manufacture dirt in Ukraine about Trump’s political rivals. Russia has highly trained professionals for that: kompromat, or compromising material, and blackmail are key Kremlin tools. Trump’s claim that he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine makes sense ...

Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

Politics

Bernie Sanders is the Logical Successor to the Trump Presidency

February 4, 2020 • by Julia Azari

This requires us to confront the presidency as it is, in the wake of Trump and all of the developments leading up to that. This isn’t some bipartisan whiskey fantasy bullshit, or an Aaron Sorkin vision of patriotic speechifying. The question of what kind of president Sanders would be goes ...

Bernie Sanders is the Logical Successor to the Trump Presidency

North America

Impeachment Has Always Been More Than Impeachment. And It Still Is

Trump must be defeated politically

February 3, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

My very first column on impeachment was published over a year ago: January 7, 2019. Written long before the release of the Mueller Report, “On Calls to Impeach the Motherfucker” made clear that impeachment was a serious option only when viewed as part of a broader strategy of resisting and ...

Impeachment Has Always Been More Than Impeachment. And It Still Is

North America

In Trumpland, Trials Have No Evidence

As Republicans scramble to justify their votes, the evidence against Trump and his aides continues to drip, drip, driplessly

February 1, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

Republican Senators scrambled to justify their votes. As I wrote last night, Alexander said that the Democrats had proven the charges against the president but those actions were not impeachable. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said that Alexander spoke for him, as well as for other senators. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said ...

North America

Andrew Yang’s Unexpected Appeal

As we approach the Iowa Caucuses, it’s useful to remember that Democratic politics is about reinventing government — and it always has been

January 31, 2020 • by Claire Potter

Andrew Yang fits nowhere in this framework, but he does point to what all these Democratic candidates have in common: to one degree or another, they all believe that politics is a conversation about how, not whether, democratic government will be renewed. For the limits of this idea, see an essay by Ian Zuckerman ...

Politics

How Disinformation Became a Winning Strategy

Fomenting political fury is something that concerns us all

January 30, 2020 • by Adam Ramsay

The recent UK election was a quarrel about the character of politics. On the one hand, the Labour Party argued that it can be used for good, ‘for the many’. They promised to transform lives and communities, to take action on climate change and poverty. The Conservative Party, conversely, claimed ...